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Strategy: This presentation outlines findings from a series of focus groups held with multiply disadvantaged people in inner Sydney. The groups were commissioned by The Cancer Council NSW in cooperation with The Wayside Chapel and Wesley Mission and conducted by social research company Urbis Keys Young. The project was an element of The NSW Cancer Council's Tobacco Control and Social Equity Strategy. Participants were smokers who commonly faced a range of problems including, homelessness, mental illness and other substance use issues. The groups explored participant's history and feelings about their smoking and examined the role that smoking played in their lives. Discussion also covered participants experience and attitude to quitting as well as their perceptions of currently available supports and ideas on what else might assist them to stop smoking.
Conclusion: Findings from the project have been used to inform initiatives within the Tobacco Control and Social Equity Strategy and may be of interest to those shaping policy or practice in relation to very disadvantaged smokers.